The present invention generally relates to thermoelectric elements, and more specifically, to a dynamic thermoelectric quick response code branding.
Thermoelectric devices are small heat pumps with solid state electrical components, known as thermoelectric elements, which leverage the Peltier effect (or generally, the thermoelectric effect) to create a temperature difference between the junctions of two different types of materials. The direction of the heat flux depends on the direction of a current applied to the thermoelectric elements. Conventional thermoelectric devices include two surfaces separated by at least one pair of thermoelectric elements. These pairs typically include a P-type semiconductor element and an N-type semiconductor element. The P-type and N-type thermoelectric elements are arranged in arrays that alternate between P-type and N-type elements in both array directions. Thermoelectric elements are available today in very small packages and can reach very high temperatures. For example, thermoelectric modules can be smaller than 2.5 mm×2.5 mm×2.5 mm and can reach temperatures of about 200 degrees Celsius.
A quick response code is a type of matrix barcode that can be read by an optical imaging device such as a camera and processed using Reed-Solomon error correction. Quick response codes typically consist of black and white modules (square dots) arranged in a rectangular pattern. Each dot represents a bit of data (“0” or “1”) depending on whether the bit is “white” or “black.” Conventional quick response codes are detected as a 2-dimensional digital image and can be digitally analyzed by a programmed processor. More recently, the use of quick response codes has rapidly grown in the consumer advertising, packaging, inventory tracking, transport, manufacturing, and retail industries, due in part to the wide dissemination of smartphones having built-in barcode reader or scanner capabilities. Quick response codes provide a convenient means of accessing online resources as well as a high storage capacity and fast decoding speed.